One of those was Melbourne’s Midnight Juggernauts, who formed in 2004. The three-piece – made up of multitasking musicians Vincent Vendetta, Andrew Szerkeres and Daniel Stricker – have since released three full-length albums. 2007’s Dystopia was perfectly geared towards the dance floor, while 2010’s The Crystal Axis embraced melodicpsychedelics, and last year’s The Uncanny Valley was an expedition into shoegaze-y electronics.
“It’s a lot more fun for us if we can keep things in motion,” says vocalist/ keyoardist, Vendetta. “Sometimes it’s good to juggle and see what new shapes and colours form. It can be a risk and there’s much safer paths to take, but we prefer to be adventurous.”
As part of this month’s Melbourne Music Week, Midnight Juggernauts will host a 10-year anniversary celebration. Taking place at MMW’s Queen Victoria Market flagship venue, the event will feature appearances from a bunch of their closest friends, including Kirin J Callinan and Fascinator.
Most importantly, the gig’s a celebration of Midnight Juggernauts’ decade-long endurance, so the band plans to showcase their allotted career achievements.
“There will be a retrospective element to it, though we wanted to have some fun with that idea,” Vendetta explains. “We’ll shake up some old tunes from the past, but have additional new ideas as well.”
The uniquely structured retrospective set will be followed by the Melbourne debut of Midnight Juggernauts’ latest project – “electronic dance music odyssey,” Aerials. Aerials had its first public outing at the Sydney Opera House in May. Vendetta provides further details on the project.
“Since we’ll get to take over a new space for this night, we wanted to create our own musical landscape,” he says. “It will have original music and visual displays, as well as some other new technological toys we thought would be fun to incorporate. It’s a fun platform to trial some new audio/visual devices.”
If all goes to plan, Aerials is slated to be a bold diversion from the band’s conventional approach to live performance. After a decade in the game, Vendetta says this audio/ visual experiment is a sign of what’s the come.
“We’re not really interested in being a normal band going through a normal routine, or with general touring. If we get together to create music, it’s more fun to release it within special one off events or creating individual moments. We’ll probably only do things if there’s leeway for more experimentation or a platform to trial more experimental concepts or technologies.”
Truth be told, Midnight Juggernauts’ responsibilities have always extended beyond simply playing live and making records. For instance, they run the Siberia record label, which has issued releases from the likes of Kirin J Callinan, Cassius Select and Forces.
First and foremost, however, Midnight Juggernauts’ savvy songwriting and innovative spirit is what’s brought them to the attention of audiences around the world. Back in 2004, they were an aspiring group of musicians stepping into the Melbourne scene. Despite trekking all over the globe during the last 10 years, Melbourne continues to be an important aspect of the band’s identity.
“There’s always lots of things going on and interesting scenes and bubbles which float through this town,” Vendetta says. “When we were living in Europe a lot of people thought we were from Paris. When we’d correct them and say we were from Melbourne they’d usually reference AC/DC. This is obviously just a geographic comparison, but I always liked that reference. Plus [footage of] It’s a Long Way to the Top down Swanston Street makes most locals proud.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
